


A week at sea

by VictoriaII



Category: Alta Mar | High Seas (TV 2019)
Genre: Alta Mar season 3, Falling In Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24807643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoriaII/pseuds/VictoriaII
Summary: Takes place right after the end of season 2. What I think could happen in season 3. Eva and Nicolas investigate again and it turns out that maybe Chantal is involved. Natalia tries to find a way to escape and have her redemption. Carolina and Fernando enjoy their newly found happiness.
Relationships: Nicolás Vázquez/Eva Villanueva (Alta Mar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 21





	1. Nicolas POV

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the show or the characters. Just writing this to help us wait through the long hiatus. First time I'm posting something thanks to the most amazing friend ever, yes it's you Ana. I wouldn't have done it without you.  
> I'm working on a cruiseship so I kinda used my experience in it. For the first part, everything has already been written.

Chapter 1 : Nicolas POV

Nicolas was smoking a cigarette, lost in his thoughts. Today was the day when he was saying goodbye to Eva probably forever. He did not know if she would be boarding the ship to go back to Spain in a month. It seemed forever to wait until this day. Today was also the day when he was meeting his wife, Chantal, whom he had not seen for 2 years. A lot had happened in 2 years, he had changed. She had changed. Were there going to be able to pick up where they left ? Most importantly, will he be able to forget Eva and convince himself she was just a fling? Convince himself that in a place like a ship when you are locked down with the same people and solving a crime were just a place where feelings and emotions are felt a hundred times deeper than in real life?  
That’s when he heard a…  
“Hello.”  
He hadn’t recognized her voice but he rose his eyes, threw the cigarette away, realizing for the first time that his wife was still alive, she was not a ghost, not anymore.  
The only thing his brain was able to do was to hug her, to feel the warmth emanating from her body, to feel her presence, to smell her scent to make sure she was alive and really there. Confusion was written all over his face as a thousand questions were crossing his minds. He barely noticed Eva leaving.   
He took her face in his hands, just to make sure she was there. He had troubles believing it.  
He broke the silence first.  
“How? Why now? Why didn’t you say anything before? I mean, I’m happy you’re alive but…"

The words died in his mouth, he didn’t know what to say. Yes he was happy she was alive but that was pretty much it. He had hoped (quite naively) that what he felt for her would come back in a rush like in those fairy tales but instead he realized that he had to learn to love her again. He had mourned her, cried in pain, begged for her to come back and finally accepted that she was dead and was now ready to move on and be happy with another woman: Eva.   
“I will tell you everything. I will explain to you everything. You deserve the truth. I hope you can learn to love me again, I never stopped loving you.”  
Of course, easy thing to say for the one knowing that the other is alive. He broke things off with Eva. He owed it to her to try this out with his wife.   
They entered inside his cabin. Chantal observing every items of the new life of her husband. This man she did not see for two years, the man believing she was dead. As she was watching, she realized that he had not changed. His cabin was still a mess.   
“Did you...are you seeing someone?” asked Chantal.  
He had not expected this question to be the first words she would say. He was caught by surprise. Should he mention Eva or not?   
“No. No one since the day I found out you were dead.” His head had made the choice to keep to himself the memories he made with Eva. It was too fresh for him to share it with anyone least of all his wife. 

They were now facing each other, he was not too fond of standing this close to her. He was uneasy. She hadn’t changed. She had still the same eyes and the same softness in her voice when she was talking to him.  
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry it had to go this way” whispered Chantal, able to read her husband like an open book.  
“What happened? Help me understand here.” He sounded exhausted.  
“I was taken to the concentration camps as you well know. Then I arrived here with a bunch of others and everywhere I would lay my eyes on, it was only dirt, violence, death, victims. I understood I was there to work and die. But I didn’t want to, I wanted to see you again and built this family we were always talking about. So I looked for a way to get out, to escape the horrors. Days after days after days…” She took her hands to prove to him that everything she did was for him and she never wanted to make him suffer this much.  
“Days after days after days, I worked helping the Germans with whatever tasks they needed us to accomplish for them to live comfortably and then one day I saw the breach in their perfect system. I took the chance, the opportunity…”  
“Why didn’t you try to reach out before?” He asked still holding onto her hands. They were warm, soft, he did remember how they fitted in his. Apparently, the brain can forget but the body can not.   
“I couldn’t. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’m hungry. Can we go grab something?”  
“Yes of course. Sorry”.

He didn't even know what he was apologizing for. He deserved to know every chapter of her story. They were heading to the restaurant of the ship where all the crew was already sitting eating their dinner. The room was filled with noises: people chatting, laughing. They deserved this time, the only moments where they could act like human and not just a job to make the ship fully functioned. He loved those moments once the ship would be empty all the passengers. He could bound with the crew, hang out with them as if they were not tied to a cruise ship.   
He sat down with his wife, their plates full. The captain was making conversation with her. He didn’t have the strength tonight to be polite and talkative. He wanted to eat peacefully, go back to his room with his wife and see how they could make this work. They had a month to mend their relationship. A month before he would go back to work as the first official of the Barbara de Braganza. 

The next morning when he opened his eyes, he saw the silhouette of his wife, laying in the bed, still sleeping. He had to rub his eyes and touch her just to check if she was still there and alive. Yesterday had felt like a dream. He wasn’t surprised it was always the case when passengers were disembarking. The feeling of being lost, missing something and all the exhaustion crashing over like a tsunami.   
He got up, got dressed. His wife didn’t stir so he thought it’d be better if he would let her sleep. He went out of the cabin as quietly as possible. He was wandering around the corridors of the ship for quite a while now when he stopped and realized that his feet had lead him to Eva’s cabin. The cleaning had not been done yet and without second thought he entered. He didn’t know why he did that, it was stupid. Eva was gone and he had to accept it. As soon as he put a foot in it, he smelled the air, her scent was all over the place. Memories came flashing through his eyes, the moment they met, their dance in her red dress, all this time where they were investigating together, when he saved her from the flames, their first kiss, when he held her as she was crying over the death of her father and that one and only night they had spent together in this room. He could almost feel her in his arms again, carefully taking off his shirt, her hands all over him. He had longed for this moment, to be this close to her, to show her that she was not as alone as she thought. He wanted to be there for her, to prove to her that she mattered. He remembered the taste of her lips, her scent was intoxicating, he couldn’t get enough of her. They had held back for so long. He had closed his eyes as the memory of their night together became too much. 

He heard a noise in the corridor, opened his eyes and saw Chantal.   
“One of the crew said they had seen you coming here. What are you doing here?”  
“The usual. Checking to see if a passenger hasn’t left anything, in the safe, under the bed, in the closets. We have already a thousand socks but none of them match.”  
He chuckled. Chantal smiled too. She could see he was really enjoying this job.  
“And did you find anything?”  
As he was scanning the room, he saw a piece of fabric that didn’t belong to the cabin’s but kept quiet.   
“No. Nothing so far. The passengers must have really wanted to disembark. Why don’t you go take your breakfast while I finish with this? Then we will visit the country?”  
She took a few steps closer and kissed him lightly on the lips. He was startled. He hadn’t expected her to kiss him so soon. Why was he surprised though? She was his wife, it was bound to happen. 

She left the room and he gathered the piece of fabric that was near the bedside table. It was a handkerchief. He held it to his nose and was pleased to discover that it was carrying her scent. He had something to remember her by, a piece of her to hold onto until he can see her again.   
A few days later, the ship had been put back in shape, it was almost ready for the passengers. He was carrying with him Eva’s handkerchief holding on to it when the situation was too much and he would also smell it, losing himself in the scent of a woman that he had known for two weeks forgetting the one that came back from the dead. The worst part of it all was that he wasn’t feeling as if he was cheating on Chantal.   
He realized that he had nothing to say to her, all his thoughts were turned to Eva.   
Chantal wanted more and more to get close to him, for them to be in a romantic relationship again but he was not ready. He was not ready to open that book again and close the one with Eva. 

They were walking in the streets of Brazil when she grabbed his hand. He tensed, it was not the hand he wanted to feel. Chantal noticed but didn’t say anything. She was really comprehensive and supporting. But she also knew her husband and he was sad. She couldn’t figure out why though because he was barely talking to her.  
The night came and as they were heading off to bed, she decided to ask him the questions that were burning inside her head for a few weeks now.  
“Nicolas?”   
He looked at her, his eyes quizzical.   
“What is going on with you? What happened during the cruise?”  
“Nothing. It was all very confusing and it’s a lot to process.”  
“Tell me please. I want to know and I want to be there for my husband.”  
“Okay. Ready?”  
She nodded. Her eyes lit. It was the first time she felt as if she could bound with him and find the Nicolas she married.  
“There was this family called the Villanueva. Carolina and her sister Eva. Their uncle Pedro. Fernando, the future husband of Carolina. They were supposed to marry during the cruise.”  
He was telling the whole story leaving out that he was getting along quite well with Eva. Leaving out that they were investigating together and leaving out they had kissed and shared a bed.   
“Then to prevent Santiago from being killed, I pushed Anibal but the bullet hit me. We were in the middle of a storm so performing the surgery wasn’t an easy task. I lost a lot of blood.  
Do you want to see the scar?”

Before Chantal could say anything he had taken the hem of his shirt off to show her where the bullet had hit him. He didn’t say that Eva had saved his life and that some of her blood were running in his veins. He really had her under his skin.   
“Then, more happened, their father was actually alive and hidden in the ship. He wanted to get a hold onto a microfilm that was showing him using trucks to bring people to concentration camps. It turned out that he was also a sort of cannibal. He attacked two people.”  
“Anibal also got killed probably by Natalia, Fernando’s sister. The singer killed herself. She was an awesome singer and a really sweet girl. Pierre is devastated.”  
Chantal had put both her hands in front of her mouth. She was just beginning to understand why her husband had acted so strangely. No one could come out from this horror quite the same way. He went on.  
“We rescued shipwrecked. One of them was named Casandra. She told us that there was a ghost on board, a woman that has been killed there and she was demanding revenge. We were witnessed of paranormal activities caused by the shipwrecked group. Turns out that the victim was the sister of Casandra, explaining why she knew so much about the ship and the Villanueva. She believed that Fernando was the killer. Turns out that it was not Fernando but Francisca. She is the woman that is like a second mom to Carolina and Eva.”   
He left the ghost part out of it. He didn’t really understand what had happened to Francisca, how she could have fallen pushed by a ghost.  
“That is quite a story. A lot happened in two weeks. How are Carolina and Eva?”  
“They will need time to recover but they will be alright. Maybe you’ll meet them in a month.”

This is how Nicolas’ month flew by, trying to trust his wife again, learning how she was all over again and relentless of letting what he lived with Eva behind.


	2. Eva POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly Eva centered. How she is dealing with everything that happened on the ship. Fernando and Carolina living their best lives. Veronica saw someone she wasn't expeciting to see again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Chapter 2 that is Eva POV during the month she spent in Brazil.  
> Then we get to the fun part, Eva is boarding the Barbara de Braganza for the second time.  
> I'll post Chapter 3 this weekend. Thank you for reading. :)

Eva had known this moment was coming but she had hoped she wouldn’t see it. She knew it was probably better for her to witness Nicolas and Chantal reunion so she wouldn’t nurture any hope about a future with Nicolas.   
She felt her heart shattered, tears coming in the back of her throat, refusing to crumble as she needed to be there for Carolina and Veronica. She needed to get to the hospital as they promised Veronica. Needed to know what will become of Francisca. As the car drove away from the ship and everything that happened, she couldn’t stop thinking that she was letting a part of her behind. Whether she had want it or not, she grew up during these two weeks, discovered a strength she didn’t think she had, found love in a very unexpected place and amidst chaos. She didn’t know if in a month she would boarding again the ship to go back to Spain but deep down she knew she hadn’t seen the last of it and more secrets were to be unraveled.

The car ride was silent, they parked in front of the hospital. Veronica was waiting near a window for a nurse to tell her news about her mother. They had grown up together, Eva was moved by how fragile and vulnerable Veronica was looking. Without second thoughts, she hugged her, putting how sorry she was that the events during that cruise turned so dark. Veronica too had suffered, experienced the scare of potentially dying by the hands of Carlos. Eva felt Veronica’s body stiffened as she held onto her tight but then her relaxed, relieved that neither Eva nor Carolina blamed her for what happened with Rosa Marin. For what her mother had done.   
“I never thought she would be able to do this. I’m sorry. Sorry I didn’t know.”  
There were tears in her eyes.   
Eva letting her slightly go answered.  
“It’s okay. You didn’t know. How could you have known? I guess we can all agree that a lot of things has been going on in this family that we never suspected.”  
The four of them nodded. A nurse came towards them.  
“Are you Veronica?”  
“Yes”, she whispered. Clearing her throat. “Is she stable? Has she woken up? Can I see her?”  
“She is still asleep. She is in a coma for now. We will attend her injury hoping there won’t be too much brain damage but we can’t know for sure until she wakes up.”  
Veronica put a hand to her mouth as she was trying to make no sounds crying in horror at the perspective that she could lose her mom, at the perspective she might not hear the sound of her voice again even if it was to scold her she would be glad to hear it.  
“But can we see her, please?” It was Eva who asked the question. Always the cold-headed one.  
The nurse looked sad for them so she nodded in agreement. They all let a sigh of relief escape.   
“One at a time only and for a short period of time.”  
“Thank you” muttered Carolina.   
The nurse left and Carolina added:  
“You should go first, she is your mom. We’ll be right there when you’re done”.  
Veronica let go of Eva’s hand and went inside the bedroom were her mother was lying still, a bandage around her head and a monitor checking for the pulse of a heartbeat. It was steady. 

It was late when they went to their new home this night. They were exhausted, everything they had lived finally caught up to them. A domestic greeted them.  
“Are you hungry?”  
Without looking at each other’s they all answered:  
“No I’m going to get some sleep.”  
“No, not hungry. Thanks.”  
“I’m fine. I’ll get to bed.”  
“I’m good too.” It was Fernando’s who had spoken for the first time since that moment in the car when they had left the Barbara de Braganza. He had felt like an intruder all day long. He knew he needed to have a real talk with Carolina about his affair and about him wanting to run away with Rosa but marrying Carolina.   
They all went upstairs. Each had their own room. Veronica would have shared hers with her mother and now she was all alone, finding the silence of her room too much, oppressing. She was too exhausted for everything so she just got undressed and lied down in bed. She fell asleep almost instantly. Sleep she needed. Sleep she hoped to be free of nightmare and also she hoped that what happened had only been a dream. She hoped that tomorrow morning her mother would wake her up, pissed off because she was late again.

Carolina and Fernando took another room. As the door closed, Carolina went straight to the bathroom. She emerged 20 minutes later in a robe ready to go to bed. Fernando had sat on the bed, waiting for her to get out. He hadn’t figured out if he was going to talk to her, stay silent and go take a shower or hug his wife. The truth is he wanted to do all of that, he just didn’t know where to start. She climbed into bed and he said “I’m really sorry about everything that happened today.”  
“Only today?” came Carolina’s voice as cold as steel.  
“No of course not but I thought that starting about today would be a good beginning.”  
“It is indeed. But doesn’t change the fact that you cheated and deceived me for quite some time. Have you ever loved me the way you loved her?”  
“It’s different. You have to trust me when I tell you that I love you and there was no one else besides Rosa.”  
“Good night, Fernando.”

She lied down of her side and closed her eyes. It was his cue to go. He went to the bathroom, the cold water being a way to punish himself.  
Eva went to her bedroom. Alone. Totally alone. She felt alone in a way she hadn’t felt alone before as if a part of her was missing. She took a quick shower hoping it would wash away the image of Nicolas hugging Chantal.   
She went to bed, lied down and waited for sleep. It didn’t come. She was replaying over and over again what happened on the ship, everything but her mind was always coming back to Nicolas. She would never have thought that she would have find a man capable of passing through her armor, someone understanding her independence and respecting her opinion. She fell asleep without noticing it.   
It was almost dawn when she woke up with a start. She was sweating, panting, she had a nightmare. Too blurry to remember what happened but Eva woke up with the name Nicolas on her lips. She needed to see him and remembered that she couldn’t. He wasn’t there and they weren’t on the ship anymore.   
What happened on the ship was a great subject for a novel. She started writing and writing until she couldn’t stay awake anymore. She was hoping to write something of a thriller but no matter the words she would put down and how much she wanted her story to be focused on the murders, betrayals and secrets, Eva found out that she was also writing a love story. A great one between the officer and the passenger. One where there is no dead wife coming back to life. One where they don’t have to part ways. Even if it wasn’t the story she was aiming for, she liked it, she even loved it and it made the absence of Nicolas bearable.   
“Eva! Stop writing for a second and come swim with us.”  
It was the voice of her sister. Things were getting better between Fernando and her. They looked like two lovebirds. Eva believed that the time they were spending off the ship was doing them a lot of good. They could talk about everything and their love seemed to be stronger than it was when they boarded the ship. After all, Carolina had kissed Casandra. She hadn’t felt sorry and she didn’t even regret. But most importantly she still hadn’t find the strength to say it to Fernando, afraid of his reaction. She didn’t want to ruin what they had, their newly found balance. 

Eva swam in the swimming-pool, a bit envious and sad of what her sister had. She missed Nicolas, more than it is suitable for her to admit. 

Francisca had finally woken up after almost three weeks in coma, the last moment on the ship before she had been pushed being very blurry. She knew she was forgetting something very important but she couldn’t remember what it was.   
Veronica had been going to the hospital everyday. She didn’t want to miss any news. When she came to the hospital to the news that her mother was alive, out of troubles, she had been happy, happier than she had been for three weeks.   
“Veronica!”  
She turned around, not expecting to hear his voice in a hospital. Having dream to hear that voice for three weeks with no luck until today. She slowly turned around afraid that he would just be a figment of her imagination and yet, no, he was really there. She ran towards Dimas, never been so happy to see a friendly face.   
They hugged each other tight, the other never close enough for the other. It was true that she was really appreciating Dimas company but she didn’t know if she was in love with him.   
“I came everyday but never saw you. I was hoping you’d come.” said Veronica, tears in her voice. She hated herself for being this weak.  
“I would have but with my project I barely had time. Sebastian had been helping me all along.”   
They were looking into each other’s eyes, their faces only inches apart. He broke the spell under which they had been.   
“Come with me. Sebastian is waiting outside. We’re going to show you everything we’ve accomplished”. 

Eva was barely leaving the house. She found it reassuring to bury herself under the writing of her novel, reading books, swimming and wandering around, having nothing to do, nothing to be scared of. It was relaxing. But she was still not sleeping, night after night she was awaken by nightmares, never the same.   
Sometime, they hadn’t been able to save Nicolas from that gun shot, she wasn’t a match and couldn’t give her blood.  
Sometime, because of the storm there was no ship left and she watched everyone she loves and cares about die frozen in the ocean.  
Sometime, they don’t save Carolina and she disappears into thin air, never found.   
Sometime, she stays trapped in her cabin while it burns.  
So many scenarios that her mind make her relive night after night. She was exhausted, anyone was seeing it. 

Carolina was doing less and less nightmares, she assumed that it was because she had Fernando to lean on. Unfortunately she was not that lucky and had no one to lean onto. She heard Nicolas’ sentence “you’re not alone”. It had been true on the moment and it had led to the most wonderful night but now as the sun is warming her she is all alone.   
They all had their demons to fight after this cruise, they weren’t really sharing their traumas.   
Loosing twice their dad had been an awful experience. Seeing him being shot in front of her eyes was still haunting her…   
In a week they would be back on board. Fernando had important meetings for him waiting in Spain. He had the coffee, shared it with his sister and now he needed to go back. 

In a week, she would be boarding the Barbara de Braganza again. In a week, she would see Nicolas again.  
Her stomach was tied in tight notch. What if he had forgotten her? Would she have the strength to watch him and his wife be happy? Would she have the strength to watch him hold Chantal the way he had held her once?   
She hoped, quite selfishly, that things weren’t doing great between them, him being unable to forget her. She chuckled lightly, she was no extraordinary woman and she wasn’t fitted to compete with Chantal.

Her novel was almost over. Only a few chapters left and she would be able to sent it to every publisher hoping one would publish it. She was proud of her work.  
The truth is that she had left the house today because she has asked Carolina to read it. Fernando had wanted to read it too when he found out that it was on the two weeks spent on board the Barbara de Braganza. He was a new man, a lighter man away from the ship. He believed that his ship would be famous. Eva had tried to explain several times that she changed a lot of names, details, some facts. She hadn’t wanted to be there while they were reading it but now that everybody knew she was writing, she had no choice but to show them her work (eventually). Eva was blushing when she was thinking about the scenes she wrote between the officer and the passenger.   
She saw Veronica coming home with Dimas and Sebastian. She hurried down to say hello. She was desperate to have new company, see other people that had lived through the same mess as them.   
“Sebastian, Dimas, what a pleasant surprise!” exclaimed Eva with a smile. “Would you like to stay over for dinner? It would be a pleasure to have you both with us.”  
“We don’t want to bother.” had replied Sebastian.  
“Come on. Stay with us. We would love to have company.” had added Veronica.  
As Veronica and Eva headed towards the house, walking next to each other and the boys chatting loudly in the back, Eva wondered.  
“Did you make your choice? Dimas or Sebastian?”  
“I don’t think I could ever trust Sebastian again romantically speaking.”  
“So it means Dimas, right?”  
“It means that I’m taking the time to see if Dimas is really the one I need.”  
Eva looked at her, smiling and softly replied “couldn’t agree more.”

When they entered the house, both Carolina and Fernando rushed to Eva saying:  
“We haven’t finished it yet but it’s brilliant!”.  
“You think?”, Eva was surprised. She didn’t believe it was that good.  
“You made a bit evil and secretive but other than it’s a really good book. I almost forgot that it happened to me, to all of us.”  
He was suddenly aware that they had company. He didn’t recall who they were though.  
Carolina stepped in and said,  
“What a pleasant surprise. It will do us good to have some company”.   
They spent the evening eating, talking and laughing the night away. Eva was so exhausted, she had believed she could sleep the entire night without a single nightmare. She was wrong, she woke up with a start, a pain in her chest, her heart unable to slow down. She was sweating and shaking. In a few hours, she would be back on the ship. In a few hours, she would see Nicolas for the first time in a month. What would he think? She had dark circles under her eyes, exhaustion written all over her.


	3. Reunited and it feels so good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eva and Carolina board the ship after a month on land. Has Nicolas been able to forget Eva? How will this cruise go down? I'm still not good at chapter summary, sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I hope you're liking it.  
> By the way, my version of Chantal is kinda Cristina in Velvet for those of you who might have watched this tv show. I highly recommend it if you haven't watched it.   
> Even though in season 1, there is no introduction of the crew, I decided to put one here because it is usually what happens when you board a cruiseship and it suited my story :).   
> I hope there are not too many mistakes. Anyway, enjoy.

Eva, Carolina and Fernando entered the reception of the ship. The sisters couldn’t help but having stars in their eyes. They were back after a month away and it is as if nothing had happened on the ship. They were in queue waiting for the keys that would open their cabins. They were taking their surroundings in, much like the first time. 

Eva felt someone watching her, she looked through the crowd of passengers and crew and found Nicolas in the stairs, watching her and only her. He had a smile on his face, he hadn’t changed a bit, he was as exactly as Eva remembered him. 

Nicolas was searching through the crowd for Eva, he had no luck yet. He was convinced she would come. Something would have come out. He was ecstatic. Then he saw her, she was still beautiful, he noticed the dark circles under her eyes and wondered what was happening in this beautiful mind of hers. She hadn’t notices him yet, he had a smile on his face, taking her sight with him and that’s when she saw him. His heart skipped a beat and then beat faster, he couldn’t help it. She had still that effect on him. He hadn’t felt like that near Chantal even after a month together. 

She was almost sure that their eyes were mirrors. They were reflecting the same emotions. She was convinced he had missed her as much as she had missed him. She had a huge smile on her lips, it could have lit up the room.   
Carolina noticed the sudden change of mood in her sister. She hadn’t seen her this happy, this alive in a month and she soon noticed why. Nicolas, it was always Nicolas. She took her sister’s arm, having taken the keys and taking her away from him. Carolina only wanted to protect her baby sister that she had seen suffer for a whole month and she didn’t want Eva realizing again she couldn’t have Nicolas in front of everyone. She wasn’t sure if Eva could handle it. Not in the state of extreme exhaustion she was in. 

Eva looked at Carolina with quizzical eyes but then seemed to realize why Carolina had acted the way she had.   
“Thanks”, she whispered. That was it, back to the old Eva that was sad.  
Fernando and Carolina had the same room than the first time. He was the Admiral after all. Eva was in a room next to them. She hadn’t wanted to be too far away from them just in case something happened.   
Carolina let out a sigh entering the room. Fulling noticing that she was back, back on the ship where people died among them her father, Fernando suspected of murder... Things were back to normal with Fernando and she was expecting a child. She found out a few days ago and was waiting to tell him the news, she wanted to choose the perfect moment. She didn’t know if there was such thing as perfect moments when it came to being on the Barbara de Braganza.   
Eva was slowly unpacking, Veronica had wanted to help but she needed to clear her head. Forget about how it felt so right to see Nicolas, forget how his eyes were looking at her as if she was the only one boarding the ship.  
She heard through the speaker that the crew introduction would begin in 10 minutes in the lounge. Eva didn’t want to go because it would mean seeing Nicolas again but she put on a dress and head out of her cabin. She sat in the lounge waiting for her sister and Fernando.   
The navigation team was introduced first and her heart skipped a beat when she heard his name. She was sipping her champagne thinking that neither Fernando nor Carolina would notice her discomfort. Even though she had sat far away so he wouldn’t find her in the crowd. She wasn’t sure she could bear his gaze again. They had so much to actually talk about and he was also a reason of why she was not sleeping at night. But little did she know that as soon as he entered the room, he saw her. She was shining like a lighthouse in the crowd, as steady as a lifeline. He felt as if he was coming back to life, as if for a month he had forgotten how to breathe. She wasn’t paying attention to him, of course she was not. He was married after all. Sad, he turned his gaze from Eva and smiled at his wife who was sitting next to where the navigation team was standing.   
She barely noticed the change of mood in Nicolas but she still looked the same way he did hoping to find out who had caught his attention like that. He hadn’t mentioned if Eva Villanueva or her family was on board. Chantal convinced herself that if was just the way he was acting during the introduction of the crew so everybody would feel comfortable around them, so they would trust them when they were sailing the ship through an entire ocean. 

The passengers went to the restaurant for their dinner. The meal was delicious according to everyone even better than the previous one. They probably wanted to make their passenger forget what happened last time. But Eva barely touched her food.   
“I can’t believe we are here again…” said Carolina, “it seems that nothing changed in a month. It is still the same ship with the same furniture.”  
“Yet everything is different since the last time we went on the ship.” It was Natalia who answered. Fernando hadn’t thought she would have come. She wanted to make herself spare after everything that happened around Anibal and Clara’s deaths. Eva raised her glass.  
“To new adventures.”  
They all agreed, “to new adventures.”  
The dancing evening had started when they came out of the restaurant of the ship. There was a new singer, a gifted one. Other than that, the band was still the same. It struck Natalia that no one seemed to notice that it was not Clara as if she had been forgotten. She did wonder how long it would take for people to forget that she even walked on this earth.   
“I’m going to get to my cabin. I’m not feeling like dancing tonight.” stated Eva.  
“Come on. You always love to dance”. Had replied Carolina taking Eva’s hand to lead her to the stage. Eva was shuffling, she really did not want to go. She let go of Carolina’s hands.  
“No. Not tonight. I will go to bed. I’m tired.”  
Carolina let go of her hand. It was true that she was exhausted. Eva climbed the stairs, opened the door of her cabin and lied down on the bed. She was staring at the ceiling. She wasn’t tired, like every night for a month. She needed to get some fresh air. She wandered around the ship following her steps, letting her mind wander on its own. It’s when she realized she was in front of a cabin door of the crew. Nicolas’ one obviously. She remembered that even though she wanted to talk to him, she was just a passenger and had not right to disrupt his evening with Chantal. She turned around and went to the sun deck. 

Little did she know that Chantal was already asleep but Nicolas was lying wide awake facing the ceiling as Eva had done in her cabin. He was thinking about her. He heard footsteps in the corridor, he straightened up, sure that it was Eva but the footsteps turned around and the noise disappeared. He didn’t think twice, he had to see her and talk to her. He got dressed as silently as he could, get out of the cabin and thought of the only place she could be in: the sun deck.   
Here she was, he saw her, she was beautiful, lost in thoughts, she hadn’t heard him. He took a few moments to look at her. The place where they had heard the woman falling overboard. Well the woman that was not really a woman.   
Eva felt warmth and a presence near her left arm. She hadn’t heard any noises. She turned her head, raised her eyes and here he was. Nicolas. The man who was haunting her thoughts day and night. Their eyes locked, both of their eyes reflected sadness to be apart. Eva saw worry in Nicolas’ eyes and she didn’t want to talk about her nightmares so she decided to break up their connection and…  
“So. Here we are again.”  
“Yes. I thought you wouldn’t come.”  
“Why? I wasn’t going to waste material for my next novel.”  
“Next novel? You wrote one during the past month?  
“Yes. I think I have.” she said with a smile, looking at him. He also had a smile on his face. He was truly happy for her. He knew it was her dream.  
“I look forward to reading it Miss Villanueva.” He was flirting like it has often been between them. He saw that she closed up but couldn’t quite figure out why.   
“Hey. After you left, I went to your cabin…  
She rose her brows, questions written all over her face.   
“and I found this handkerchief. It’s yours I believed.”  
Eva was dumbfounded. Did he keep something of hers on him all this time?  
“You kept it with you all this time?”  
He blushed, embarrassed to see that he had been caught.   
“Yes. I was scarred it would get lost. It was a reminder of you, that you existed.”  
A part of him wanted to keep it but he knew that the handkerchief hadn’t Eva’s scent on it anymore and he figured that since she was here, he didn’t need it anymore.   
“Thank you.” She asked the question that was burning her lips since the moment he got here. “How is it with your wife?”  
She felt him tense. Was it weird to talk about Chantal together? Or was it because he had been avoiding the subject. The wind blew sending a shiver all over her spine. He noticed it and got closer of her. His warmth and scent over clouding her senses, preventing her to think straight. She was sent back to her room, back to the only night they spent together when his scent was all she was breathing and she had never had enough of it.   
“Fine I guess. Learning to know her all over again.” 

It was all he said before turning to her. She had been watching closely searching for a breach, something, anything that would prove he was not happy with her but she found none. Now their faces were inches apart. She could see his pupils dilated with desire. She was sure he wanted to kiss her, his warmth and scent were intoxicating. It was the same for Nicolas, all he could think about was that she was feeling the same, her frame fitting perfectly to his arms and how he wished he could hold her more. Her scent was driving him crazy, stronger than it had been in a month. He felt her heart quickened, her breath hot on his lips. His pupils dilated even more. He wanted her, he wanted to kiss her and put everything he had felt for her during this past month, how it was her he wanted and how he wanted to make her happy and how he had missed her and hope to see her again for he would never have enough of her. Her heart was beating fast, faster than it had been in a month, she was feeling alive, having found the missing piece of her life. She wouldn’t stop him if he kissed her, not this time. She had her eyes half closed, getting closer and closer from each other when at the last moment, he could see the dark circles under her eyes. It was the only thing he could see for it was worried about her so he asked her. He knew he would regret and kissing her would have produce a firework inside his chest he didn’t know he still had in him. For she was a firework and Chantal was drizzle. But he was too worried about her to take advantage of Eva when she probably needed more a shoulder to lean on that him kissing when they couldn’t have each other.  
“Have you been sleeping at all lately?”  
She opened her eyes, didn’t move, look at him and that’s when he saw it: the pain and the sadness in her eyes. He hadn’t noticed them before. He had seen that something was off but being this close to her and having ask the question that would have set her off guards, he saw it and understood… but before he could say any word, she had vanished. He was all alone on the sun deck as if two seconds ago, they hadn’t been close enough to kiss each other. For the first time he could recall she didn’t have the last words. He knew how much she’d enjoyed it. 

Eva was walking back to her cabin, the corridors were quiet when she heard a soft “tick tack, tick tack, tick tack”. She turned around but saw no one, she looked around her but no watch, nothing that could make this sound. Detective Eva mode was activated and she wondered why there would be a noise like this this time when none had been heard during the first travel. She was still shaken up by what happened on the sun deck, she hadn’t expected things to go that far between them. She hadn’t expected anything to happen between them but again they were always standing too close to each other. She looked at her handkerchief she was still holding, put it to her nose and realized it had Nicolas’ scent, proof that he had indeed carried it with him for a month. She lied down, still smelling the handkerchief, driving herself crazy with his scent painfully aware that he was lying next to another woman. She thought that now that she was back on board and had Nicolas’ scent next to her, she would be able to sleep through the night without being woken up by a nightmare but she was wrong. She screamed a “no” as she woke up crying. Her bed was a mess, she was shivering and cried for a long time preventing her to sleep some more.  
It was Nicolas that had been pushed by someone in the ocean and she couldn’t save him and saw him die in front of her eyes.

Nicolas stayed a long time on the sun deck watching the stars, remembering their first kiss and tonight. He needed time to clear of his head before going back to sleep. His blood was boiling with desire and longing for Eva. He hadn’t fully realized how much he had missed her. When he started to feel the cold, he went back, walking absentmindedly to his cabin. Chantal was still asleep. She didn’t stir when he entered the cabin, he changed back and tried to lie down without touching her because he knew how cold his skin might have been. He couldn’t prevent himself thinking that despite the cold his skin had been hot with Eva so close to him but as he lie in the bed, still staring at the ceiling as he was before hearing the footsteps in the corridor; his wife couldn’t make his skin burst into flames under her touch.  
As he closed his eyes, he couldn’t hide to himself the disappointment he feels to be sleeping with Chantal and how guilty he feels for feeling as if his place was next to Eva and not Chantal.


	4. Tensions are rising

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!

Eva couldn’t sleep so she got out of her cabin, needing to clear her head from her nightmare. She thought that it was becoming necessary for her to find a way to sleep. She would lose her mind otherwise. In the corridor leading to the lounge, she was still hearing the “tick tack, tick tack, tick tack”. It was walking beside her, with her but she couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. It was as if the ship had a heart, a steady pulse and the rhythm was “tick tack, tick tack, tick tack”. She was sipping her cup of tea in the lounge when she heard it again, it was faint but still here. The lounge was slowly filling with people, noises, life and the “tick tack” sound couldn’t be heard anymore. She knew that if she wanted to find information, it would have to happen late at night or early in the morning when everyone was still asleep. That was a good thing that she couldn’t sleep anymore.

She looked up and saw Nicolas. Without thinking, she went to him, she needed to tell him what she heard yesterday night and this morning.   
“Nicolas?” she said hesitantly. She hated her tone of voice. Too hesitant for her own good.   
He turned around, smiling first but seeing her he tensed, worry written all over his face.  
“What is it?”  
“Did you hear the noise?”  
“What noise, Eva? There’s no noise except the one the ship is usually making.”  
“No. Not this one. Yesterday night, did you hear a “tick tack, tick tack”?  
Yesterday night, to be quite honest, he hadn’t been really focused on anything except Eva. She was the only thing that mattered on this ship.  
“No. Why?”  
“Look, when I came back to my room, I heard a tick tack then early this morning again. It was the only thing I could hear. Faint but loud enough for us to hear when there are not too many passengers around...”  
He felt her agitation. He would have noticed if there was a strange noise on board, he was working here after all. He took her hands in his, hoping to calm her down. He was rubbing the back of her hands with his fingers. He had forgotten how nice her hands were fitting his, how soft her skin was. He was looking at their joined hands, wanting to remember every second of this moment. He hadn’t noticed that Eva had stop talking, he hadn’t noticed how her breath caught. Exhaustion was taking the best of her, the mask she was usually wearing crumbling. Suddenly, he realized that Eva had stopped talking. There was no one else around them, the lounge and the stairs were filled with people living their morning on the ship but it was like they were the only two people standing here.   
He raised his eyes, she was looking at him with expectant eyes. She wanted him to believe her and do that with her. They were better when they were investigating together.  
“I’m gonna investigate, see if anybody among the crew has heard it and then we meet to see what we can do if somebody else has heard it.”  
“I’m coming with you.”  
“You go get some rest, Eva. If we do this, I need you to be in tip top shape. I don’t want you to fall asleep on me. I’ll have to save you again.”  
Chantal had been observing them from a distance. Quite curious to see how this would turned out. She didn’t remember her husband acting this way with her and it had been a month of only just the two of them. She felt jealousy crept in her. They were standing so close but neither of them seemed to realize it and the way he was gently touching her hands. Why would he comfort this woman so desperately? She figured it was time to make herself known so the other woman would understand he is hers.   
Nicolas noticed Chantal presence only when she was close enough to touch both of them. Without letting go of Eva’s hands, he introduced his wife.  
“Chantal, my wife. This is Eva.”  
When Eva heard the name, she let go of Nicolas hands as if they were suddenly burning her skin. Nicolas was quite surprised by her reaction.  
“Eva Villanueva. Chantal.”  
“Pleasure to meet you. I heard a lot about you, I’m sorry for your father.”  
Eva knew that she was not pleased to meet her at all, that the tone of her voice had an undermining threat in it but she still accepted the hand she was extended. Now was not the time to act rude or jealous in front of Nicolas.   
Eva left as soon as her hand was free.   
Nicolas apologized quickly and went back to work.  
Chantal sat in the lounge, sipping tea on her own.

Eva had not listened to Nicolas and didn’t go to rest. She wasn’t feeling like it after having met Chantal. It had become real. She wanted to forget. She went to the one place where she knew she would have a bit of fun. She went downstairs where Veronica was staying. She had left Dimas and Sebastian in Brazil, they had been a business to take care of. Veronica had came only because they needed to bring her mother back to Spain so she would face trial. But Eva wasn’t here to see her, she wanted to spend time with Julian and discover if he had information about the “tick tack” noise.   
She found him, drinking beer, surrounding by technical devices.   
“Hey, you. Can I join?”  
He wasn’t expecting to ever see her again. He had always been attracted by her. The moment he met her. She was a beautiful young woman even if she wasn’t aware of it.  
“Wasn’t expecting to see you again.”  
She sat down and he gave her a beer.   
“What brings you here this time?”  
“Why would anything bring me here? I just wanna spend time with my friend.”  
“Eva.”  
She let out a sigh. “Fine. You caught me. Do you know anything about the noise we can hear at night?”  
“What sound?”  
“Come on Julian. If someone known something it might be you.”  
“Okay, well…” He came closer, looked around to see if no one was listening to them and started to whisper. Eva had already had too much to drink, she was resting her head on her hand, trying to focus.  
“I heard that some people in here or working near the machines have heard a “tick tack, tick tack, tick tack” that wouldn’t stop. Not loud but when everything is silent you can distinctly hear it.”  
“Do you know who might have any interest of…?”  
He cut before she finished her sentence.  
“I might. There are this group of people who claim to be survivors of concentration camps. No one knows how they arrived in Brazil but the thing is they are coming back to Spain.”  
“Julian. Are you saying that they’d plant a bomb on board?”  
“I’m not saying anything. I don’t have any proof. It’s you who investigate and find proofs.”  
So she hadn’t imagined the noise, she wasn’t that tired yet. She looked at Julian, really looked at him for the first time. He had just been a means to an end and a very good companion but she had always looked only at Nicolas. Now for the first time, she noticed how handsome he was. She didn’t know if it was because of the alcohol, the fact that she was exhausted or the fact that she couldn’t have Nicolas anymore but she made no move to move her head back when he put his hand on her forearm and she made no move to push him away when he leaned in to kiss her.

Chantal was going back to the cabin she was sharing with Nicolas when she saw a red-haired woman stand alongside her.   
“I’m Natalia and I think there is something you should know about Nicolas and Eva. I saw the three of you earlier and I figured you were the dead wife who turned out to be not so dead anymore.”  
“I’m listening.”  
“I’ll be careful and I’ll make sure that they don’t spend a lot of time together.”  
“Why?”  
“Maybe she is not just a friend.”  
With that she left with a mysterious smile lingering on her lips. 

Chantal did not know what to think of it anymore. She wanted to believe Nicolas but she also knew what she saw earlier today. She saw the proximity between them. She had seen Eva, she was really beautiful, no wonder Nicolas felt attracted by her but he was hers. From what she gathered from Nicolas, she is well aware that Eva could find out their plan, warn Nicolas and then she could get arrested. She had to make sure Eva stay put, won’t investigate and won’t talk to Nicolas if she finds something weird going on the ship. She hadn’t been quite honest with Nicolas about why she decided to come back in his life.   
“Eva”, she jumped at the sound of his voice. She hadn’t seen Nicolas coming here. He was never here. How had he find her?  
She turned around.  
“What?”  
“What are you doing?” He couldn’t prevent the jealousy from perking in his voice. He knew Eva had noticed.   
“Spending time with a friend.” She said smiling to Julian.  
Julian wanted to disappear. He had known something was going between the two of them. But since he and his wife were together again, he saw no wrong at flirting with Eva. He should have guessed better.  
“Come on. You’re too drunk.”  
She tried to get up but she stumbled on Nicolas who caught her. He had his arms all around her. It had been a while since she hadn’t been in Nicolas’ embrace. She had forgotten how much she felt safe and like she belonged here. She probably shouldn’t drink that much, it wasn’t helping her keep a straight mind and get away from him.   
He wasn’t letting her go though. She was safe now, she couldn’t fall. She cleared her throat.  
“Nicolas?”  
“Euh...yeah sorry.” He was confused. He let her go, avoiding her gaze, he was feeling embarrassed at how possessive he had seemed when she couldn’t be his. Julian noticed but made no comment about it.   
Nicolas took Eva by the hand and started to led her away, take her back to her cabin. She wasn’t walking straight and made no effort to help him. She was leaning onto him.  
“Were you jealous of Julian?” She suddenly asked.  
He choked, he didn’t think she was going to ask the question. She laughed, she clearly found this situation very funny.   
“What if I was? I care about you.”  
“But you’re married.”  
He bet she wouldn’t remember what happened today so he went with the truth.  
“What if it’s not enough to forget you?”  
She stopped dead in her track, her smile dying on her face. Her eyes becoming serious. All trace of liquors vanished from her system. She turned to ice.   
“You can’t say that.” She started to slowly walk away, leaning against the wall to support. Her legs were not doing their job, the liquor and this conversation being too much for her to handle. He caught her wrist and added:  
“Eva, I mean it what if I can’t forget you?”   
He had lowered his voice, hoping that no one was eavesdropping and praying that Eva would forget in the morning. It was not fair to ask her that when he was the one that had a wife to come back to and she had just the ghost of Nicolas.  
She was struggling finding an answer.   
“What if I can’t too?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. He put his hand under her chin to make her look at him. Her eyes were shiny. Until now he hadn’t really paid attention to how she might have been feeling and how their little history could have affected her.   
A door opened, it was Carolina.   
“Eva. Nicolas. I heard noise in the corridor. What are you doing here?”  
“She drunk a little bit too much and I walked her to her cabin.”  
Eva was still looking at Nicolas, her eyes didn’t leave his face. That’s when he heard it, a faint and distant “tick tack”.   
“tick tack tick tack tick tack”.

Carolina was already walking Eva back to her cabin. But he heard it, it existed. He had doubted Eva because he could see how exhausted she was but now he was sure there was something strange going on this ship.  
Carolina closed the door behind them and helped her little sister put herself to bed.  
“What is going on between Nicolas and you?”  
“Nothing. Nothing at all. He is married remember.”  
She heard the voice of her sister break but she knew how Eva didn’t like anyone to witness how much she was suffering. She decided to just put her to bed as motherly as she could do to give her some comfort.   
Carolina had never seen Eva felt this way for any man before. She was scared of what she could do. She tiptoed out of the room, praying for Eva to find some peace in her sleep for once. 

The next day he was looking for Eva, he wanted to tell her that he heard the noise too. She was nowhere to be found. He figured that maybe she was resting in her cabin given the day she had yesterday. Eva was in bed, reading, her head was pounding. Consequences of the alcohol she drunk. She wasn’t ready to face her sister or Nicolas for that matter. She remembered everything that happened. Nicolas’ confession and she didn’t want to deal with it. The truth is she didn’t know how. She was thrilled by the news but it’s not as if he could divorce his wife or be willing too for her. They didn’t know each other for a long time. At the thought of what he said in the corridor, her heart beat faster.   
The moment she set foot outside of her cabin, she ran into a solid shape. She looked up and saw Nicolas. Obviously, who else could it be?  
“I just wanted to tell you I heard it.”   
“You did? Julian told me that men working near the machines had heard it too.”  
“We should go check it out. Now.”  
“Together?”  
“Yes. Together.”  
She hesitated. It would mean spending time alone with Nicolas and she wasn’t sure she could resist and put a strong facade after everything. Before she could say anything, he was at the end of the corridor. They were walking side by side, closer than they needed to be but none of them seem to notice their shoulders brushing with every step they were taking. Chantal noticed. She had followed Nicolas pretty sure that he would go see Eva at some point and she needed proof. She followed them, they weren’t talking just walking side by side. She thought that there was nothing to worry about, he might be helping her with something. 

Chantal entered Eva’s cabin hoping to find anything that could prove Eva and Nicolas were more than just friends. She hoped to find a note, it would be concrete proof that Natalia was speaking the truth. She headed towards her bed and she noticed it: the handkerchief she had seen Nicolas with several times. She took in her hands and started smelling it. Under Nicolas scent, she could still smell her scent. Her blood started boiling inside of her veins, Eva had no right of taking her husband away specially in front of her eyes. She threw away the handkerchief, not caring where it would fall and not caring if Eva would notice that someone entered her room. She ran down the corridors desperate to find them.

Nicolas was the first one to open his eyes. He remembered Eva falling to the ground as they were starting to get closer of the sound. Or so it seemed. The sound echoed against the walls making it harder to identify where it was coming from.   
When he saw Eva still lying motionless, he got up as fast as he could despite the pain and rush to her side.   
“Eva! Eva! Open your eyes!”  
She stirred and started to slowly open her eyes. He felt a wave of relief crashing over him. He grabbed her from the floor and hugged her. Still dizzy, she hugged him back, he was alive too.  
“What happened?” She asked her head in his neck. He was feeling her hot breath on his skin. It was sending him shivers.   
He was about to reply when they heard noises.   
“I don’t know but we’re about to find out.”  
He helped her get on her feet. He took her hands in his and put her slightly behind him, wanting to protect her.  
A man came to Chantal and said rapidly:  
“Your husband and a woman were snooping around. We locked them, we are waiting for you to tell us what we should do with them.”  
“YOU LOCKED THEM TOGETHER?! YOU FOOL!!”  
She ran to the only place they could have been locked down, near the machines. 

When Nicolas and Eva saw the door open, they never thought they’d see Chantal furious.


	5. Feelings exploding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate it so so much.

Chantal closed the door of their cabin. She was as quiet as a vicious snake. Nicolas knew he was not going to like what was going to follow.  
“So Eva and you are just friends?” Nicolas couldn’t stop the words from being spoken.  
“Seriously?! You want to discuss about that now? There could be a bomb about to explode on the ship and all you worry is whether or not something is going on between Eva and me.”  
“Has it?”  
“What?”  
“Has something happened between you two? Something I should know about as your wife?”  
“Nope. Nothing at all.” He lied to her looking her straight in the eyes, his jaw thightened, he would do anything to protect Eva.   
She looked down, recollecting. She hadn’t expected him to deny anything. She wasn’t even considering the fact that he was telling the truth.  
“Oh. Okay. So was it necessary to hold her hand?”  
“She was scared! We had been knocked down by someone, we heard noises and I was trying to comfort her!”  
“You never do that with me.”  
“Do what?” He sounded exhausted now more than angry.  
“Take my hand.”  
“Oh so it’s what this is about? It’s about you being jealous of Eva.”  
“I mean, you spend so much time with her.”  
“Let me ask you this. Are you or are you not responsible for what happened to Eva and me? Do you know anything about the sound we can hear at night on board?”  
“What if I know something? What if you were getting too close? My intention is not to kill Eva. I just want the two of you done. No more secrets meetings, no more holding hands. I’m your wife, you have a duty to me and not to her! Am I clear?”  
“Crystal. But I can’t promise you that.”

The next morning when Eva get out of her cabin, the circles under her eyes another shade of dark, Carolina decided to intervene.  
“Eva, I think we need to talk?”  
“About what?”  
“Nicolas.”  
“Oh.”  
“What was that?”  
“What?”  
“Eva don’t be a fool. You being drunk and him accompanying you to your cabin. You know he has his wife now. It will make you suffer to spend time with him.”  
“I didn’t want to spend time with him. I didn’t want him to find me but he did. He got jealous.”  
“Got jealous? He has no right to be jealous. Eva look at me, it’s better for you if you stop looking for him on the ship. You need to move on from him. You’ll find someone better, someone willing to marry you.”  
With tears in her eyes, Eva left. A part of her knew Carolina was right. She should stop investigate with him, it would probably be for the best. It would protect her from being in his presence which was unbearable because she couldn’t touch him or get too close to him, if there was a too close. But a part of her hated Carolina because she felt like she wouldn’t find any man better than him. They had a connection, he understands her, supports her, believes her, makes her laugh. She feels like she can trust him with her life. He had saved her, right? 

She saw Nicolas, she didn’t feel like talking to him so she turned around and left. She would find another place to hide for the day and process her feelings.  
Nicolas had felt Eva’s presence more than he had seen her. The instant he turned his head to meet her gaze, she went away. He had time to notice briefly her shiny eyes. The only time he had seen her cry was when her father died and he had been there to comfort her. It had been hard to let her go. If he was being quite honest with himself, he wasn’t feeling much better himself. He knew Chantal was right. He needed to give her a real chance, she deserved it. She came back to him and even if he still doesn’t know the whole story, he made the choice to start to have a happy life with Chantal, he made the choice to be happy without Eva in his life. Even though it costed him, he didn’t follow her. He let her go. Seeing her so sad and refusing to do something about that was breaking his heart into tiny little pieces which he knew she’d be the only one to fix. 

Eva had found a spot on the sun deck where she could watch the immensity of the ocean, the same blue color extending everywhere, the same regularity that was only disrupted by the ship passing. Almost no one was coming here.  
She made a promise to herself, she’d say what she was feeling to Nicolas, to give herself closure. She could go on and find someone else. There was plenty of men on land, right? She was still young and someone would make her heart beat like Nicolas. She didn’t know that falling in love was painful, she thought it was falling out of love. The writer part of her thought that it would make a great love story in a romance novel.

Santiago had seen Eva walking alone around here, she looked sad. He did the only thing he could think of which was to call Nicolas to go check up on her.   
He had liked Chantal but he had also been there to help him go through the ordeal of losing his wife and he had also seen how Nicolas had been happy around Eva. He had lit up, he hadn’t seen him like that for a long time. Santiago thought that maybe Nicolas would be better off with Eva than with Chantal, after all Chantal came back after two years. He thought this was strange because if you love someone with your whole heart, you don’t wait two years to come back home to them.   
Nicolas came on deck, answering the order of Santiago but Santiago told him,  
“It actually has nothing to do with your job. I saw Eva walking around here and I thought she might be hiding here. She looked pretty sad so I figured you could go and comfort her.”  
He had said the last part with hesitation. Not sure where the two were standing since they hadn’t seen each other for a month.   
“I thought you wanted me with Chantal.”  
“Maybe Chantal was the one you needed back then but Eva is the one you need know.”  
“You lectured me for a month and now you tell me this.” added Nicolas with a light chuckle. He couldn’t believe it. He left. He found Eva, she was sitting in a corner, looking at the ocean. He approached her and put his arms around her as the sun was setting. There was no words to be spoken, each of them well aware of what the other was feeling… Eva leaned in his embrace, her head under his chin, one of his arms around her neck and the other around her waist. He was holding her possessively, not wanting to let her go, not again. She dried her tears, and put both her hands on his arm around her waist and she was lightly caressing it. She softly pressed her lips against the arm around her neck, smelling his scent: the sea and fresh air. All she could feel was the warmth of the sun setting and the warmth emanating from his body. It felt as if they were all alone, it was a regular cruise, no investigation, no one was between them. He placed a kiss on her head. She closed her eyes at the touch. She knew it was dangerous to stay in his arms because the longer she stayed, the less she wanted to remain the woman on the side, the less she wanted to make sure that Nicolas stay faithful to his wife. 

Santiago was curious, he followed Nicolas to see how it would go between them. It was not what he wanted to see but his heart melted at the sight. He was an old sentimental. It reminded him of a time when his wife was alive.   
When the sun had completely disappeared, it started to get chilly and they went inside, neither of them ready to talk, ready to break the charms. There shoulders and arms were brushing. They wanted to take in each other’s presence as much as they could.   
They parted ways and Eva entered alone in the lounge. Carolina and Fernando came rushing to her, Natalia following slowly behind with a mischievous smile and a glass in a hand. Her theory was that she had spent the day with Nicolas.   
“Where have you been?” asked Carolina’s voice, she was worried.  
“I was watching the sunset on the sun deck.” That was all Eva said about her day.   
“Are you okay?” asked Carolina as Fernando and Natalia looked at the band performing both sipping their glass of alcohol.   
“Yes. Fine. Don’t worry.”

They heard around them some passengers talking about how talented was the new singer. The two pairs of siblings had never really thought about that, so much had been going on that they hadn’t really paid attention to the new singer. 

Eva saw Pierre moving across the crowd. Natalia watched with concern, the smile on her face had vanished, her glass down. She had barely seen him during the beginning of the cruise, wondering what he was doing and if he was okay. Now seeing him like that, she realized she should have insisted to see him, command him to see her because it was clear given how he looked that he wasn’t well at all. His face was worse than Eva’s so that meant a lot.   
He moved slowly, very calmly, Natalia tensed, it felt like the calm before the storm. A storm was coming and she was the only one seeing it. He faced the new singer, looked her in the eyes as she kept singing, unaware of the event that was coming. Natalia started moving towards the crowd, Carolina, Eva and Fernando were watching her with curious eyes, heading for Pierre preventing him from doing something he would regret. She was closing on him, she was hoping to arrive on time but a lady just behind Pierre said “she is a really gifted singer.” Pierre turned around, saw Natalia, grabbed the gun he was holding in his belt, shot in the ceiling, everybody froze and some screamed. Some had bent to protect themselves from the gun, Natalia was the only standing near Pierre, she started,  
“Pierre, come on. Give me the gun, you don’t want to do it.”  
“Come closer and I shoot.” The gun was on his temple. “I swear to you Natalia, I will shoot.”  
“Pierre, look at me. You can survive this. I know you lost the love of your life but she would want you to live.” He was shaking, half crying, his nerves taking the best of him. He took a step closer and screamed:  
“You think I can’t hear you?!! Ooh she is so talented, so gifted. She sings so well. But you forget that there was someone before her. Clara. My Clara who died because of your husband… His voice caught. Natalia casting him a threatening glance. He took a deep breath and kept going with a softer voice. “Your husband violated her. Twice. What a monster he was and you’re just like him. You’re as cold as ice, you feel nothing.”  
“I AM NOT LIKE ANIBAL. I was a victim here just like Clara and I broke free. She broke free too in a way.”  
“You don’t get to talk about what she did. It was because of you. Everything is because of you. I don’t want to keep going without her. It’s too hard. Everything reminds me of her, how am I supposed to let go if she is everywhere?”  
“You don’t have to let her go. You know that Pierre, right? She will always live forever inside of you, inside of your heart. Her songs will also live through you.” Her voice so soft as if she was speaking to a child.

The crowd was holding their breath, mesmerized by the scene in front of them. They also were scared he would shoot one of them but curiosity took the best of them.  
Pierre was crumbling, his will of ending his days weaker and weaker.   
Natalia took a step closer, slowly, not to frighten him. He was already on edge.   
“I blame myself too, you know?” His voice broke. She nodded as an understanding.  
“I blame myself because I told her that this monster would be a great opportunity for her career. I never thought he would hurt her… My Clara. Then I blame myself because of the kiss. It should have never happened. We just got caught up in the moment. There is just something about you that is hypnotizing. I don’t understand how Anibal could have trapped you the way he did.”  
“I know, Pierre. Believe me I know. I regret everyday. Waking up in the morning is an ordeal, breathing has become painful.”  
She was taking one step at a time, getting closer from Pierre. He was listening to her but not watching. She was in front of him, she extended her hand and whispered:  
“Give me the gun.”

Against all odds, he extended his arm toward her and she grabbed it then throw it away in the ground where Varela had been standing, waiting for the right moment to detain Pierre. Not detain him for what he did but more to protect himself from himself. Pierre just fell into Natalia’s arms, she didn’t really know what to do. She relaxed and put her arm around him, holding him like a child. She let escape a single tear. After all, she was the only one having seen Clara the way he had and she was the only one who could ever understand how it was living with Anibal. Having all your joy and life taken away from you and never coming back. It was as if the world were moving but you stayed put unable to walk, unable to follow the crowd, trapped in his influence and embrace.  
While all of this had been going on, while the crowd wasn’t paying attention to their surroundings, the group Julian had mentioned to Eva closed the doors leading to the lounge with a loud bang. Everybody turned around from Pierre and Natalia in one single move. They saw Chantal before the closed doors. She was holding pistols as was the rest of the group. The passengers had barely time to let out the breath they were holding as Chantal took advantage of the involuntary distraction given by Pierre. 

Nicolas was in the middle of the stairs.  
He screamed, “Chantal. What are you doing? What is this all about?”  
“We are here because we need something from this man.” she pointed Pedro with her pistols. Eva looked shocked, curiosity written all over her face. She would finally have answers at least some. She felt a tinge of pain for Nicolas that was trying to mend the broken pieces with her. He was struck with surprise, his legs moving with automatism unaware that he was walking toward Chantal so they could talk. This made no sense at all.   
Fernando had put an arm protectively around Carolina. He wasn’t ready to relive what happened during the previous cruise. The fear of losing her forever still had a bitter taste in his mouth. He struggled to find the words but eventually the question was asked.  
“What could he have that you want?”  
“The gold.”  
Eva rose on her feet. “He doesn’t have it!” She watched Chantal in the eyes, Chantal sent a silent threat with her eyes, Eva fully understanding that it was also personal. It was because she knew about Nicolas and Eva.  
“Well, if in 48 hours, I don’t have the gold handed to me, the ship explodes. The sound you’ve been hearing is the sound of our bomb.”  
The man behind the bar put the bomb on the counter. The tick tack, tick tack being heard louder than it had ever been before.   
“But he doesn’t have it. You can’t make the ship explode. If someone has the gold, it must be Sofia. She might be in Brazil or she might hide on the ship, we never know. My uncle doesn’t have it.”   
It was Carolina who had spoken.   
“Very well. We will have the ship searched starting with your cabins”. She pointed a finger at each one of them. You better hope we find something otherwise you’ll have the death of innocent people on your hands.”  
She started to walk away to begin the search but Nicolas always being the hero said “let everyone else go. We’ll stay. The passengers can go back to their cabins as I’m sure no gold had been hidden in their cabins.”  
“Fair enough.”

The crowd of passengers didn’t wait for her to changer her mind. They rushed toward the exit and soon there was only Eva, Fernando, Carolina, Natalia and Pedro. The navigation team had been put in a corner of the room, it was meant to keep Eva and Nicolas far away from each other.  
Eva was lost in thought, she had so many questions. Why everybody seemed to want the gold? What is special about it? Is Sofia on board or far away? Is this a real bomb or are they just bluffing? Is it possible that Pedro have it? It’s true that they had barely seen him last month. What had he been up to? Did Chantal come back only for the gold or does she love Nicolas?   
It’s the moment Carolina chose to announce Fernando she was pregnant.  
“There never seems to be a good time on this ship and I think you should know…”  
“I’m listening. What is it?”  
“I’m pregnant.”  
Fernando cracked a smile, a real smile and asked,  
“Are you sure?”  
“Yes. I know for a couple of weeks now. I had this whole evening planned out but if we die, I want you to know that you will become a father.”  
He had happy tears in his eyes. He took his wife in his arms and protectively put a hand on her belly. No one was going to touch her. They wouldn’t pay for the issues of others. 

Nicolas was keeping an eye on Eva, she didn’t seem to notice the people around her. He thought that she was figuring out a plan or trying to assemble the pieces of the puzzle, trying to understand the situation. She didn’t like too much not having all the answers.   
Carolina fell asleep on Fernando’s shoulders holding Fernando’s hand. The sailors knowing that it had nothing to do with them fell asleep too. Pedro was agitated. He didn’t know the outcome and couldn’t understand what they wanted. He just knew that everyone had a pistols and they couldn’t talk or leave until Chantal came back. His brain was trying to figure out the next move too. Eva was fighting sleep, she didn’t want anyone, and by anyone she really meant Nicolas, to hear her scream in fear in her sleep. She knew she should have found a solution for her nightmare before. Now it was coming back to haunt her in the worst possible moment. 

Pedro finally dozed off to sleep, he was an old man and even if he was worried he couldn’t not sleep. Natalia was casually sleeping too for a while, she had lived through more, much more. It was not a hostage situation that could prevent her from sleeping. Her demon was dead.   
The silence was only broken by the steady “tick tack, tick tack” and the noise of the footsteps of the group watching over them. Eva still thought that it was quite exaggerated to keep them lock in here as they searched their room for the gold. They had so many opportunities to go in them without them being there, why make it a huge show?  
Nicolas had his eyes on her, he was finally going to understand what is happening at night with Eva. Why the dark circles? The adrenaline kept him from being sleepy, his focus and worry on Eva and only Eva. Pierre had stopped crying a few moments ago, Varela had handcuffed him so he won’t act as a suicidal man on a mission.   
Eva was trying as hard as she could not to fall asleep, he wasn’t understanding why. With Chantal gone, they were all safe, except for the bomb over their head.  
Varela thought that he should have resigned before boarding the ship or he should have taken another ship. He had never seen a ship with such bad luck. They must have eaten rabbit, it was the only reasonable explanation. 

Eva felt herself drifting away, falling asleep. She was exhausted and didn’t have enough strength to fight sleep anymore. The nightmares came almost right away or so it seemed to her. The bomb exploded, they hadn’t been able to negotiate with Chantal, water was tearing apart the ship. The only thing she could think of was that she needed to find Nicolas, he must be somewhere, he had been closed to her when the ship had exploded. She was screaming his name but the water rushing in the lounge was covering her voice.   
The water was arriving up to her knees and no sign of Nicolas. An indescribable pain took hold of her heart, she started panicking, she was breathless, her legs didn’t want to find the strength to carry on. She knew it was only shock, she was not hurt. Suddenly she heard a faint Eva, she rushed towards it and then it became louder and louder until she opened her eyes.   
Nicolas was by her side, deep concern written all over his face. 

He had been watching her, her brows furrowed, the pupils under her eyelids were moving fast. He saw her lips moving but couldn’t make out what she was saying, he got up on his feet when one man of the group told him “don’t move or I shoot.”  
He didn’t listen, rushing toward Eva and waking her up. She opened her eyes, terror written all over her face and eyes as the image were still vivid in her mind. The following part of her nightmare unraveling behind her eyes. She might have been awaken but the coldness of the water, the shock, the panic were still there. By chance, she hadn’t woken anyone else. He cupped her face and kept whispering:  
“You’re okay. You’re safe. It was just a bad dream.”  
She had closed her eyes again enjoying the touch and enjoying being comforted after a nightmare where she had been scared Nicolas had died.  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He sat beside her as he asked. She turned her head, looking into his eyes.  
“Because… because I didn’t want you to look at me like you are now.”  
“For how long has it been going?”  
“Since the day we disembarked. Every night. Not even the alcohol worked. There are things my mind can not forget as easily as I’d love to.”  
“You can talk to me you know?”  
“I didn’t want you to worry for me, you already had Chantal to worry about.”  
“And look how that turned out. Not pretty well.”  
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be watching over you. I’ll wake you up before another nightmare.”  
“That’s the thing I can’t seem to find sleep again. I’m wide awake now.” She made a pause. She needed to discuss all of this with someone.  
“Why does everyone want this gold? Why is it so special? Do you think my uncle has it? Is Sofia on board?”  
“Slow down, one matter at a time. Let’s wait for us to get out and then we will worry about that.”  
“Do you know how to disarm a bomb?”  
“No… do you?”  
“No. I’m a writer, remember.” She smiled at him. The terror being completely gone from her eyes, only the dark circles were the proof that she had had a rough night.  
“I still have to read that book.”  
“I know.”  
They fell into companionable silence. She felt a weight on her shoulder and an arm falling onto her lap. She hadn’t noticed before that Nicolas was falling asleep. She was flattered he trusted her enough to fall asleep next to her.   
At the crack of dawn, the doors opened, waking up everyone. They were sore from not having spent the night in a real bed but mostly glad they were alive. They sprung to their feet.   
“We didn’t find anything in your cabins, neither in the ship so I guess “tick tack, tick tack”, she said showing the bomb with a sign of her head.  
Eva asked, “why are you doing this? What’s in it for you? You got Nicolas back, isn’t it enough?  
“Doesn’t mean that because it would be enough for you, it is for me. The Nazis took everything from us. Your company helped them in their dark schemes so now it’s time you pay and it’s time you give us back what belongs to us.”.  
“It was my brother who had business with the Nazis, my nieces and I are innocent.”  
“I’ll decide about that. According to my sources, your niece right here is not as innocent as she wants all of you to believe. I blame her for having stolen my Nicolas away from me.”  
“You just said I wasn’t enough for you and the reason you came back after two years is not me. I hoped, prayed for you to be alive, for you to have escaped the worse, I loved you day and night and the moment I’m finally ready to let you go, here you are flesh and blood. I wanted so much to be the same man you used to know and love, the same one that you married, remembered and loved but since you were gone, I changed. I learned how to live life as a lonely soul, half living and then out of the blue here she was, like a lighthouse and I followed the light emanating for her. She nursed me back to life.   
He left, leaving Chantal fuming with rage and Eva too surprised to react or move or think or breathe. Did he just admit he had feelings for her and was over Chantal?   
She vaguely heard the words “you’re free to go for now.”  
She stayed a long time in the lounge, long after everyone had left.


	6. You. It has always been you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to every single one of you that have read up until this point. It means a lot to me, like A LOT! Didn't believe that you would like it as much as I loved writing it.   
> Now I let you discover what happens next.

40 hours before the bomb explodes.

Varela hos locked Pierre in his room. A sailor was often checking on him. They were afraid he would make a mistake. Santiago had known that it was a mistake to have Pierre on board. The death of Clara was too recent, the ghost of her still here. But Pierre needed an occupation, something to do and to keep his mind busy so he wouldn’t spiral. Pierre didn’t want to be saved, didn’t understand why he could be alive and not his sweet Clara. Thus the failure of the Captain’s plan. Even if he was their boss on board, he still cared about them, they had done so many cruises together that they were more than just co-workers.   
There was a soft knock on Pierre’s door. He opened and was surprised to see Natalia, probably the only person that he didn’t want to see. He blamed her, he will always blame her, probably because it was easier to ease his guilt on someone else.   
“Come in. What do you want?”  
“Just wanted to talk and see how you were feeling?”  
“Oh. Suddenly you care?”  
“I often care even if I don’t show it.”  
“All of this is insane. You could have gone to Varela and explained what happened. I’m sure he would have helped and Clara would be alive. She wouldn’t have needed to leave with the weight of her rape and murder.”  
“Varela? You sure he would understand. He is a man, what makes you think he is any different than Anibal?”  
“I’m different. Your brother is different.”  
“I couldn’t take the chance. I won’t serve time when I did the right thing to protect Clara and me from his clutch for the rest of the cruise. It would have been worse if he were alive and breathing.”  
“You could have talked to Varela.”  
“You clearly don’t understand, do you? It’s not like it’s a crime that is recognized, what happens in a marriage, stays in a marriage. Maybe in another time I could have done that but this time has not come yet.”  
Varela entered the cabin.   
“Natalia Fabregas… I have gathered enough proof to arrest you for the murder of Anibal.”  
It was like all the oxygen in the room had left her lungs.  
“No.” was the only word that escaped her mouth.  
Varela took her arms and led her away.   
“I swear to you that I won’t go to jail for this. I deserve to live freely. He was a monster, a predator.”  
“You will be detained until the end of the cruise and we will deal with you on land.”  
The moment the door closed behind her she searched for a way to set herself free. 

Eva couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was happening because of her and because of the ties she had with Nicolas and with the company of her father and dear uncle. She was sure of one thing, Pedro had the gold. She couldn’t shake the feelings that he had gotten it back for some reason. They barely saw him the past month, he was really discrete as if he didn’t want anyone to notice his presence. From what she had learned during the last cruise, he was a man full of resources and he pretended to have be blind just so no one suspected him. If Chantal had looked for the gold all night long and didn’t find anything, it means that he must have hidden it well.   
She knocked at Carolina and Fernando’s room. He opened, she entered without waiting to be invited, she was in a hurry.  
“Fernando, do you have the maps of the ship? The new one and the old one? When you bought it?”  
“Why do you need them?”  
“If Pedro has the gold and has hidden it, it might be in a secret passage like the one leading to cabin 3. There might be more and I need to check them out, find the gold and give it to Chantal so she won’t blow us up.”  
“This is actually a great idea” said Carolina when she saw that Fernando was reluctant.  
“I’ll go grab them but I’m warning, I don’t want to be involved in your mess.”  
“No problem. I’ll be good on my own.”  
“I’ll feel better if you were doing this with Nicolas.” added Carolina, wanting her little sister to be safe.  
“I will.” She perfectly knew she was lying. She was avoiding Nicolas, she had thought he was happy with Chantal and hadn’t believed for a second the things he had said to her but now she realized that he could be honest. She didn’t know if she was ready to have that talk with him.   
She took the plans, folded them and went to see Julian that she hadn’t seen since their almost kiss earlier in the week. She didn’t want to see him too but she needed every information he could have about bombs. She found him working with cables.   
“What do I owe this unexpected pleasure, Miss Villanueva? Love quarrels?”  
She didn’t think he would be that cold. It took her a second to answer.  
“No. I’m here so you can teach me how a bomb works.”  
“You want to disarm the one there’s on board, am I right?”  
“Right. You can’t do it alone”.  
He started to walk away, she followed him.  
“What do you mean?”  
“Every bomb is different, I need to see it if you want me to help you.”  
“I’ll find a way for you to see it. It’s well-guarded.”  
“I want something in exchange of this favor.”  
“Seriously? You will be saving lives and be a hero. What else do you want?”  
He stepped into her personal space.   
“You.” Eva didn’t move, considering the deal. She was looking straight into his eyes.  
“Fine. Dinner tonight.”  
“Deal.” He extended his hand, she took it and left. Walking away, she told him:  
“See you tonight.”  
Chantal was locked in Nicolas’ cabin. He didn’t want her to be in contact with her group anymore and he didn’t want her around the Villanueva family.   
“Why...why do you act like this? What’s in it for you?”  
And he closed the door. He wanted time before being able to face her. He knew he wasn’t able to deal with it just now. He found out that his wife had not come back for him. He made a lot of effort during the past month to trust her, to mend the broken pieces of their relationships just to discover that there was nothing to save. He had done his best not to cross any lines with Eva because he wanted to remain faithful to his not-so-dead wife. He was ready to give up his happiness with Eva if it meant finding a new happiness with his wife. He owed it to her to see what would have become of them if they hadn’t separated two years ago. Sometimes everything felt like a dream. Eva had been the only constant person he could trust. She was like fresh air and had never betrayed him. He didn’t know if he could fall in love with his wife again or just the old feeling of companionship and caring could be enough but he knew in his heart that with Eva he was feeling something deeper than he had ever experienced. Being close to her but unable to have her had been the most painful experience he had known. The longing, the heart twisting, the stomach dropping realizing there’s nothing to be done to comfort the person you care about. Nicolas also knew that he had no right of being jealous to Eva, he hadn’t really talked about how everything was going with Chantal. Well, now it was clear that things hadn’t been going fine.   
Natalia had been locked inside her cabin for what seems to be forever. She was not very patient and she hadn’t stayed seated all this time without doing nothing. She had a plan. And her plan was about to be set into motion.

The door opened, it was Varela.  
“I hear you’re ready to confess to what happened to your late husband?”  
“Yes indeed.”  
She step closer to him as quiet as a snake. The expression on her face unreadable. Varela felt uncomfortable, he knew that she could be cold, her face severe without letting anyone catch a glimpse of what she might have been thinking. He knew that today was no different. If he had to admit, he thought that she was scary, she had this aura of danger around her, one never knowing her next step. They all are thinking that she is a victim when she may also be the culprit. No weakness was shown. Why had he thought that today was any different?

He collapsed to the ground, Natalia had shot him without second thought and left him to die on the floor. The door opened wildly, the sailor watching it had heard the detonation, Natalia locked him inside the cabin and run like there was no tomorrow for her…  
The sailor tried to save Varela in vain, he was gone. She was gone too.  
Eva had been looking through secret passages and she hadn’t had any luck so far. No gold yet. She was not giving up, the gold was on this ship, she was sure of it. Nicolas had heard noises through one of the wall and he waited to see what it was: he didn’t think that Eva would come out of the corridor behind a painting. He had a mocking smile on his face.  
“What are you doing inside a wall?”  
She jumped, she hadn’t heard or seen him, too focused on her mission.  
“I’m looking for the gold. I’m sure it is in the ship somewhere.”   
“Let me help you. We’ll do it together.”  
She tried to hide the maps of the ship. She didn’t want to spend time this close to him. It was like tempting Evil. Clearly, he disagreed with her, he stepped into her personal space, their faces inches from each other, he put his arms behind her back and reached for the maps. He looked at them a few moments.  
“Clever. How many have you done already?”  
“I don’t need your help.”  
“Perhaps but we’ll be faster together and there is a bomb that is going to explode.”  
“Fine, you can help”.  
Only 4 secret passages were left. They were in one, a passage between two cabins, between Pedro’s cabin and Carolina and Fernando’s ones.   
“Why are you so sure that the gold is on the ship?”  
“Because we barely saw my uncle when we were on dry land and I’m assuming Chantal and her group wouldn’t have done all of this if it weren’t here. They must have information we don’t have.”  
They came out of the last passage empty handed, nothing, not a single trace of the gold. They knew time was running out.   
“Eva, look about yesterday…”  
The alarm of the ship went off, it was the sailor who had activated it. A flash of fear crossed Nicolas’ eyes. He started to run down the corridor, Eva following. He heard loud bangs on the door where there should have been someone standing in front of it, he kicked the door open. The sailor had blood on him. He saw Varela in a pool of blood, lying dead.  
“I couldn’t do anything to save him” apologized the sailor.  
“It’s not your fault”, replied Nicolas.  
“How was it that she had a gun?”  
“I’m not sure the room had been searched for guns before she was put in it…”  
“Where is Natalia?”  
“I don’t know, sir. I rushed inside the cabin when I heard the gunshot and she locked me in it.”  
“I’ll check on my sister and Fernando, see if they saw her.”  
“I’ll go take a look on Chantal.” Eva tried to hide her sadness.  
He arrived in his cabin.  
“Are you okay?”, Chantal asked.  
“Varela had been killed.”  
“About what you asked earlier, I wanted to tell you, I had no choice, they made me do it because of my connection to you. I didn’t want to, I really wanted to be with you again as if the two years never existed and we were never apart. Then I saw you with Eva and I got mad and jealous and I executed their plan…” Her voice trailed off, she was crying.  
“I’m sorry Nicolas, you have to believe me. I don’t want you to think that I came back for my own interest, I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Nicolas was not looking at her. She was talking to his back. It made him feel good to hear those words. He had dreamed all day long to hear that but a part of him thought she was doing this to trick him. After all, how could he know that everything she was saying was true? He slowly turned around, moved by her tears but preventing him for falling into her trap. He wanted to old her and comfort her like he used to do.  
“How can I know you’re saying the truth?”  
“You’ll just have to believe me.”  
“Give me something if you want me to believe you. Why do you need the gold for?  
“I know that inside one of the gold bar there is a key that can unlock a safe or something. I don’t have the details, I’m not the mastermind behind it”.  
She grabbed his hands in a pleading gesture, tears filling her eyes.  
“Come on, Nicolas, you have to believe me.”  
“You know that as soon as the bomb is disarmed, I will have to hand you to Varela and you will be trialed in Spain.”

He was playing with the fact that she didn’t know he was dead. He hoped that she would get scared enough and reveal everything, wanting to redeem herself from threatening the life of a thousand six hundred and fifty passengers and a hundred crew members.   
It was time for Eva to enjoy her dinner with Julian for the sake of the passengers and for her sake too, it would take her mind away from Nicolas.   
Julian had set a table for two, Eva was the only one missing. When she showed up, he had a big smile on his face.  
“For a moment I thought you wouldn’t come”.  
“We have a deal, of course I was going to come.”  
A part of him had hoped that she would consider this dinner as more than just a deal to fulfill. He would have helped her anyway but she didn’t need to know that.   
“So. What is going on between you and Nicolas?”  
She choked on her glass of champagne, surprised by the question. She slowly set down the glass on the table, searching her words in the process.  
“It’s complicated.” was the only thing she replied. It seemed to encapsulate their entire relationship.   
“Every relationship is complicated. What makes yours so different?”  
“His wife perhaps” replied Eva with a face that was saying “that’s a start”.  
He chuckled.  
“The truth is, Eva, that I like you. I want to know if I have a chance with you or not.”  
He reached for one of her hands, he was lightly stroking her fingers, she didn’t move. She didn’t really know how to do that. She liked Julian, she really did but Nicolas had her heart. 

She had a small smile on her face. She spent a really nice evening with Julian. She felt light, forgetting for a moment everything that was going on in her heart and in her mind. Nothing had interrupted this wonderful moment. If it was under other circumstances, she could fall for him. When the moment came to leave, she kissed him on the cheek, he didn’t dare try something else. She was a wild spirit and she was always the one leading the dance.   
Nicolas was waiting for her in front of her cabin door. He had knocked several time and she hadn’t answered. He needed to talk to her about what they would do for the bomb tomorrow since Chantal was of no help. 

He saw her walking in the corridor, searching for her keys. She was really pretty tonight. Her long blue dress suited her perfectly, a twinge of jealousy rose in his heart. She was dressed up for somebody and it was not him. When she saw him, a smile light up her face.   
Suddenly all the jealousy he was feeling melted away. He smiled back. They looked like two teenagers in love.   
She opened the cabin door and invited him in.  
“How long have you been standing here?”  
“You don’t want to know.”   
The first thing he spotted on the bedside table was the handkerchief he had given her back. She saw his eyes linger on the piece of fabrics.   
“You miss it? You want it back?”  
She was playful.   
“You’re here to talk about tomorrow, right? What do we do with the bomb?”  
“Chantal has nothing. Apparently she is not the mastermind behind, she seemed honest.”  
“I’ve talked to Julian tonight and he will help us. He knows a thing or two in bombs and their functioning.”  
Eva had sat on the edge of the bed, she was tired. Nicolas had sat on a chair in front of her.   
“So you had a date with Julian?”  
Eva didn’t notice any hint of jealousy in his voice, he was smiling.  
“Something like that.”  
“Do you like him?”  
“Is that why you’ve been waiting for me?”  
“No. No. I thought we could plan what should be done to make sure everything goes well.”  
“Do you have any suggestion?”  
Eva lied down on the bed, her legs still hanging outside.  
“Natalia can wait. We’ll look for her after the bomb is disarmed. We need to let Fernando knows about that so he won’t make any interference.”  
“I’ll go see my uncle about the gold and ask him to give it to us and that maybe we will be able to steal it back to him.”  
“About that, Chantal told me that in one of the gold bar there was a key. I don’t know if all need to be melted in order to find the key or if one has a distinct symbol…”  
“This gold is starting to get more and more interesting.”

Eva tried to hide her yawn. Her eyes were starting to close but Nicolas couldn’t notice from where he was sitting. He couldn’t see her face, couldn’t see that she was slowly falling asleep. Eva was trying to fight sleep but sleep deprivation and the events of the last few days were getting the best of her.  
“Once we have the gold, we release Chantal, ask her to plan a meeting with her group to discuss the next move with the gold and the bomb. Sailors and us are going to be hidden and when we have all the information we need, we arrest them. Take the gold back. That is going to be when Julian will enter into play and will prevent the bomb from exploding. We should have enough time to do everything together tomorrow. We can’t take the risks of being separated because it is the opportunity the group is going to expect to disrupt the plan. We can’t allow that. What do you think? Do you have a better idea?”  
Silence was the only reply he got. He leaned in and touched her knees but she didn’t move. He stood up and realized she had fallen asleep. Given the amount of sleep she had gotten lately he figured it was better not to wake her up. 

He saw the manuscript laying down on the desk, as quietly as he could he grabbed it and started reading it. He knew he shouldn’t do that but he was really curious to know what she had written. He didn’t want to go back to his cabin where no one was really expecting him… Plus Eva could need him if she had another nightmare. He took her shoes off, put her properly to bed, a blanket around her and he sat back in the chair and started reading.   
He had dived in the world she was depicting, he understood right away that she had written a remake of what happened during the first cruise. He had read thirty pages when he heard her move, she started moaning something he couldn’t quite hear. Her voice was barely a whisper. He didn’t know if she was in pain or not. But then it got louder, he rushed to her side, shaking her delicately.  
“Eva. Eva. Wake up. It’s not real. It’s not happening. You’re fine.”  
It didn’t work. He grabbed her hand so she would feel something that would anchor her to reality.  
“Eva! Come on, wake up. It’s just a nightmare. Wake up.”  
She opened her eyes, and sat down in the bed, taking in all her surroundings. Fear written all over her face. Finally she realized Nicolas was there and was holding her hands. She squeezed them just to make sure it was real and she was not trapped in another nightmare. It had already happened, she was awakening from a nightmare just to realized that she had never waken up and was trapped in another nightmare.  
“You’re okay. I’m here.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. It was enough to make her feel safe again. That’s how she knew that the demons were only in her head and not real. Nicolas was there, he was alive and breathing so she had nothing to worry about. Her hands were still on his lap, one of his hands rested above hers, caressing them absentmindedly and his other arm was around her shoulder. He felt her fall back asleep on his shoulder, he put her back to bed as gently as he could. He was going to leave her for the night when she caught his wrist and asked him “can you stay for tonight?”  
She saw he was hesitating and she knew she couldn’t ask because Chantal must be waiting for him but if it was their last night she wanted to spend it with him and no matter if Chantal was mad and Julian jealous.  
She added, “please?”  
He just couldn’t resist her. He nodded. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. He took off his shoes and lied down next to her.  
“Thank you for everything.” She didn’t wait for his permission to put her head on his torso, his heartbeat lulling her to sleep. Her arm casually resting on his chest.   
He couldn’t find sleep, his mind was racing, remembering memories. The memory of their night together more vivid than it ever had been in a bit more than a month. It’s with Eva breathing, safe and sound, no nightmare threatening the peacefulness of her sleep that he managed to close his eyes and fall asleep. There was no place else he wanted to be. As he was drifting into the realm of dreams he thought that she was home. Not Chantal, at least not anymore but Eva. If it was his last night, he knew he would die a happy man.


	7. What we do for the people we love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I hope you will have enjoyed this story. I'll probably write 2 or 3 more chapters to close all the storylines. I have all the ideas, I just have to write down everything.

24hours left before the bomb explodes. 

Nicolas woke up, he had to pretend to be working. Eva had slept through the night without having another nightmare. Her face was on his shoulder, he had an arm around her, one her arm was around him and her fingers were gripped around his shirt. One of her legs was all over his. He couldn’t get out, he was stuck. He quickly thought of a way to get out of bed without waking her up. It wasn’t going to be easy. He slipped out of bed, slowly and put a hand under her head to delicately put it on a pillow. She didn’t stir, she must be really tired he thought because he hadn’t been exactly gentle. He put on his shoes and his jacket. Wrote a little note and exited the cabin.   
He was closing the door behind him.  
“Nicolas?”  
He jumped, surprised. He hadn’t expected to find anyone in the corridor this early in the morning.  
“Carolina. You scared me.”  
He was whispering just in case Eva could hear.  
“What are you doing here?”  
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”  
“I’m not stupid. I have eyes you know. What were you doing in Eva’s cabin? Did you spend the night here?”  
“Yes, she asked me to stay.”  
“You will have to choose between Eva or your wife. I don’t want to see her more miserable than she was when we were on land. If you plan on staying with your wife, you should let her go. She deserves happiness.”  
Nicolas left without replying. He was not sure Carolina could understand the situation he was in: trapped in a marriage where love was just a memory and a relationship that was making him feel more alive than he had been in years.

Once she saw Nicolas disappears from her sight, she opened Eva’s cabin door and saw that she was sound asleep. It’s been more than a month that she hadn’t sleep that much. She hadn’t give Nicolas enough credit, he had made sleep through a night, that’s all Carolina had desired to see her sister getting better.   
Carolina was developing a new instinct now that she knew she was pregnant. She had always wanted to protect her baby sister but it was more the other way around in their relationship. Eva being the bravest and always protecting Carolina. She had faith in her little sister, she would find a way to stop the bomb. She closed the door and let her sleep. 24 hours left, they had plenty of time to stop a bomb, Carolina was really hopeful and so was Nicolas. 

Eva finally woke up, she assumed it was late in the morning because Nicolas was gone. He had left to work. It had been since forever that she hadn’t feel so rested. Her eyes were not burning with sleep anymore, the dark circles under her eyes were a shade clearer. She didn’t want to think about the fact that a bomb might explode today in less than 24 hours, she also didn’t want to think that tonight the nightmares were going to be back because she wouldn’t Nicolas protecting her from it. She knew they had been talking about a plan yesterday night but she couldn’t really remember because she fell asleep half way through it. Once she showered and got dressed, she headed towards Pedro’s room. He could be the only one helping them. She was sure she could find a way to make him give them the gold. He was their only shot. She was confident enough that he wanted to live so he could enjoy the gold.   
She knocked at his door.   
“There’s no rush. I’m coming.”  
“Uncle Pedro!”  
“Eva, what is it?”  
“I have something to ask you. It’s about the gold. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important.”  
“What is it?”  
“The bomb will explode in less than 24 hours unless we bring the gold to Chantal. So maybe you could give us the gold, we give it to Chantal, her group disarm the bomb, we arrest everybody and then the gold is back into your hands.”  
“Come on. Not here. Come in.”  
She entered his cabin. He closed the door behind her, making sure no one was in the corridor and nothing they could see could be overheard and repeated to Chantal and her group.   
“What makes you think I have the gold?”  
“Where were you during when we were in the mansion in Rio?”  
“Fair enough. Let’s say I agree. What guarantee do I have that by the end of the day the gold is going to be safe with me again?”  
“You have my words. I can’t offer you much. I wish I could know the outcome of today…”  
Wait a second here, turn around and close your eyes. Eva looked at him, bewildered, he was making such a huge deal of a suitcase filled with gold. She obeyed, she hadn’t time to discuss this. She thought that her uncle would trust her more after everything that happened. She heard noises, she couldn’t make out what it was but it seemed as if he were tearing his cabin’s apart. She was hearing the gold bars although she didn’t want to let herself hope that they could do it. She needed to remain calm and not get too excited or over confident otherwise it wouldn’t work. She took a deep breath and waited until her uncle had gathered all the gold bars. From what she could hear, he had put them in different places so if one found some he couldn’t find the other. It was a clever idea.   
Soon, she felt a heavy suitcase in her arms, she opened her eyes, it was filed with the gold bars.  
“I’m trusting you with this.” He closed the suitcase. “Good luck, Eva.”  
Now, she wanted to find Chantal so she could prove it to her that they had the gold.

In the meantime, Nicolas had gone to Fernando. He had taken with him a team of sailors to look for Natalia. Even though, she had presumably killed Varela, she was his sister and he needed to ask her questions and see what could be done about it. If she had indeed killed the detective, he wasn’t sure he would make up a story to defend her specially given the fact that a sailor had heard everything. He would have to spend a lot of money. Besides, if his sister was out of the equation, the business will only belong to him and him only. No need to share, no need to consult here before doing a negotiation or a contract.   
“Nicolas. What do you need?”  
“There is a bit more than 10 hours before the bomb explodes, I’m here to ask you if the sailors can stop the search for Natalia. The top priority is the bomb and I need everyone on deck.”  
The tick tack getting louder and louder as if it was playing with them a sick game of hide and seek.   
“I’m sorry to ask you that. I know how much your sister means to you but if we don’t have the people to disarm the bomb, there might not be a sister to find.”  
Fernando was impassible, not a trace of fear, worry, joy, sadness on his face. Nothing that could let Nicolas know what he was thinking.   
He finally nodded. “Okay, you can have the team of sailors. Let me know if you have any news about the bomb. I hope you will succeed.”  
Eva was walking towards Nicolas ship being aware of her surroundings. She didn’t want any questions ask about the reasons she could have for carrying a suitcase with her. They were in the middle of the ocean and it wasn’t time to pack to disembark. She silently thanked Nicolas for having taught to her how to pick a lock. Chantal wasn’t expecting to see Eva. At the noise, she had hoped that it was her team setting her free. She hadn’t mentioned everything she knew to Nicolas.   
“Miss Villanueva. What a surprise?”  
“I only came here to give you the gold?”  
“So Nicolas doesn’t know what you’re doing here?”  
“No. I don’t think it’s the moment to talk about him. We have to prevent a ship from exploding.”  
“Open the suitcase. I need to make sure the gold is there.”  
Eva did it. The gold was indeed in it, she hadn’t cheated.  
“Where was it?”  
“None of your business. You have the gold that’s all that matters.”  
“Actually, it’s not. Do you love my husband?”  
Eva was quickly thinking of how she might answer this question. The answer was clear in her mind: yes but how can she say that to the woman he chose to marry?  
She opened her mouth to answer and that’s the moment Nicolas chose to enter the cabin. He was surprised for a second, he hadn’t seen Eva since last night when they were discussing about the plan. He didn’t know when she fell asleep but he was proud of her. The plan was set into motion and there was no going back.   
“You’re both here, great.”  
Nicolas felt like he had walk into a very dangerous mine fields. He had clearly interrupted the discussion they were having and he didn’t need a crystal ball to wonder who they were talking about. Him. Not awkward at all.  
“Am I interrupted anything?”  
They glanced at each other. “No. Not at all.”

Eva and Nicolas were carefully avoiding each other, another proof for Chantal that something had happened last night and that Nicolas hadn’t worked all night long as he claimed. They explained to Chantal that the group and her were going to be reunited because one of them had to know something, anything that could help disarm the bomb. Neither Nicolas nor Eva dared to mention that Julian was probably able to help them.   
Chantal was agreeing with them, playing really well her part of “I want to redeem myself”. Eva couldn’t buy it and she didn’t know if it was because she was clouded by her jealousy.   
She thought she was over it, she wasn’t. She knew Nicolas was her anchor and she felt like home in his embrace.   
The three of them arrived in the room, the small place where all the poor gathered after their long day of work (if you have a better description I’ll take it ahah). The sailors were hidden all over the room and more were going to be waiting behind the door, as back up. The group waiting in the center of it. They were all standing to show their superiority and how much they believed in their cause.   
Chantal entered and Nicolas and Eva could see how much she was necessary to the cause. Their faith was back, she was the glue holding the whole mission together.   
“Where were you?”  
“Did you find the gold?”  
The tick tack of the bomb became more suffocating as everyone was aware that they were running out of time. Time was not on their side anymore. The whole thing had taken too long.  
“I found the gold. It’s right there.”  
Their was a sigh of relief in the assembly. A breath they didn’t realized they had been holding. Joy were written all over their faces. Maybe they will feel more alive and put the trauma of the concentration camp behind them.   
“Can we see it?”  
She opened the suitcase. It’s this small moment of distraction that caused the next events to happen. Nicolas made a small movement with his hands, the signal that the sailors had been waiting for. The sailors surrounded the groups, ready to fight. They had no guns on board, it wasn’t allowed. Nicolas stated “you are all under arrest for attempting the life of 1650 passengers, a hostage situation and stealing the gold of Mister Villanueva.”  
Chantal closed the suitcase, rose her eyes and it was all it took for her group to rebel. Being arrested was not part of the plan. Nicolas hadn’t been expecting that. He tried to block the doors so no one would go out but he saw someone hit Eva and he run to save her. Smart move from the enemy, Chantal got away with the suitcase. The sailors not being trained to fight were falling like dominoes, knocked unconscious, Eva was too, Nicolas had only see get punched once but maybe it was more. He rose on his feet and started a fight with one of the men trying to get away. He was one of the last in the room. He got knocked down.   
Chantal and her group were outside, the wind was cold as the night was settling in. They climbed into one of the lifeboats and left silently in the darkness. They waited miles and miles before screaming their victory, not one feeling guilty about leaving a bomb to explode on a ship full of innocent people. Only Chantal had the ghost of a smile on her face. She thought it would have been easy, get in and get out but when one mix the personal to the professional it always get more complicated. Pain is caused and hearts are broken. 

Nicolas was the first one to open his eyes, he was feeling the cold of the floor and the movements of the ship as he was lying down, his head pounding. He took in his surrounding, his men were all helping each other standing up and checking themselves for injuries. None of them seemed dead for now which was a small victory, a small thing to celebrate given the circumstances. He saw Eva exactly where he had left her, her nose bleeding, she was still motionless. He rushed to her as fast as he could given the pain he was feeling. She had a pulse which was reassuring, it means she was still alive.  
“Eva. Eva.” He touched her shoulders gently. She moved and groaned.  
“Careful. Don’t move too much.” Her eyes started to move, she was trying to open them.   
She found the force to articulate, “how much left before the bomb explodes?”  
Nicolas had completely forgotten about the bomb, all he could think about on the moment was Eva. He needed to work on that so he could focus on his job: protecting the passengers.  
“One hour.” Eva tried to sit. A wave of pain came crashing onto her.   
“Easy there.” said a Nicolas trying to be comforting when he wasn’t feeling much better.  
He helped her on her feet. They had to get to Julian. The tick tack of the bomb being the only thing they could hear. It was as if they were hearing their own heartbeat.   
“You okay?” concern was suddenly written all over her face.  
“Yes, don’t worry about me”, Nicolas replied.  
They went screaming for Julian, they had no time looking for him. He was in the machines area, working.   
“Julian, now would be a good time to help us with the bomb.” It was Eva talking given her relationship with him, Nicolas and her had agreed that it would be better if she was the one asking him. Julian took his tools, he didn’t know which one he would need.  
“Can you hurry up?” asked Nicolas.   
Julian looked at him, his eyes sending thunders.   
“Do you want my help or not?”  
Eva cast him a glance saying “can’t you just wait.”  
“How long before the bomb goes off?”  
“Less than an hour.”  
“Let’s go. You don’t look too good, you sure you can run.”  
Eva said with confidence, “what other choice do we have?”  
The passengers saw the three of them running through the ship, two of them showing evidence marks of fighting, they knew the bomb was involved. The passengers had been calm, trying not to panic, trusting the crew on this matter but as the last days went back, some were losing hope… The tick tack of the bomb becoming the only sound they could hear, being louder than the band. The band had tried everything in its power to play joyful tunes to cheer the passengers up, it was their job after all.  
Julian, Nicolas and Eva arrived in the lounge, headed towards the bar to take a closer look at the bomb. Julian started his magic, counting the wires, the colors of the wires which were in certain cases helpful. 

Thirty minutes were left.

Julian theory was that the mechanism couldn’t be tricky since in the first place the bomb wasn’t make to kill people. It was just a distraction and a threat to have the gold. As he looked at it closely, he realized that the person who had built it was nowhere near a pro making the mechanism tricky.   
“Julian, can you do it?” asked a pleading Eva. Her hand were covering her mouth in a prayer gesture. She was not a really religious person but if someone could help them, God might be the one. Nicolas was pacing, impatient, stressed, nervous. Eva was looking at him pacing but overall she seemed calm. In her mind, she was actually thinking about Natalia being still gone, all alone somewhere in the ship, Carolina and Fernando expecting a little human, Nicolas having been betrayed twice by his wife…  
Her trail of thoughts was interrupted by Santiago who entered to tell them that a lifeboat was missing and that Chantal and her group was gone. The gold too was gone. Eva watched carefully Nicolas as realization hit him. She had left him, here, all alone to die. She saw something break in his eyes, she closed the distance behind them and hugged him. She should be happy, she was rid of Chantal and Nicolas could be hers but she was just sad, she couldn’t bear seeing Nicolas like that. He put his arms around her almost instantly returning her embrace. She was feeling him clenching to her shoulders, it was almost painful, he was trying not externalize what he was feeling.   
Eva answered, “thank you Capitan.”  
Santiago left, he had a ship to sail.

Ten minutes left. 

Julian was sweating, he had scissors in his hand. He knew he needed to cut some wire but every time he was trying to cut the green one, he had a doubt. He could be wrong and every one would die because of him. Same if he didn’t do anything. The passengers, the crew and the ship were gone too. The responsibilities were huge.  
Eva let go of Nicolas.   
“You’re gonna be okay?”  
“Yes, it’s not the first time I loose her. The difference is this time I have you to help me get through it.”  
“I don’t want to be any replacements for her. I couldn’t stand it.”  
“You’re not Eva, what I said to you or how I acted have always been sincere. Besides, a lot of what happened between us happened before we even knew she was alive.”  
“I want nothing more to be with you, Nicolas. I need to have the guarantee that if she shows up again you’re going to stay by my side.”  
“I guarantee you if we survive this.”  
Eva was looking at Nicolas like he was the only thing in the world. Her eyes were loving, caring, not at all like Chantal were. Nicolas realized that his wife should remain in the past. Eva was his present and his future. She was the one who brought him back to life. They have lived through so much together, their bond was stronger than pretty much everything.

Five minutes left.

“Guys, I’d hate to interrupt your lovebird reunion but we have a more pressing matter.”  
Both blushed, they weren’t there yet. They came next to Julian, one at each side.  
“What is it?”  
“I’m pretty 85% sure that the green one should be the one that disarm the bomb. It appears to be the only colors connected to the explosives devices.”  
“85%? The rest being?”  
“It might not stop the ticking and it might make it explodes faster.”  
“Are you kidding me?!”  
The tick tack of the bomb was distracting them, it was playing with their nerves.  
Eva stated, “let’s cut the green one together and see what happens.” She looked at both of them, they didn’t seem sure. Nicolas having faith in her put his hand on Julian’s hand, Eva quickly followed and the three of them gestured toward the green wire.   
They took a deep breath, silently praying for everything to turn out well. They cut it, severed it from the rest of the bomb. A loud “bip” was heard and then nothing. The two minutes left frozen, no tick tack, no bip could be heard. Nothing making us think that there was a bomb armed on board. None of them dared to move. Shock were still written on their faces. They had taken a shot and it had been the right one.  
Eva let a laugh of pure joy and threw her arms around Julian. She kept whispering “thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”  
“Nice job, pal” said Nicolas, patting him on the shoulder.   
Julian had still his arms around Eva. He couldn’t believe it. He had done it. He felt relief crashing over him.   
Julian was putting all his tools in his box. His job was accomplished. In the heat of the moment, she moved to Nicolas, watching over the bomb as if it was still going to explode, and kissed him. Nicolas was surprised and it took him a few moments to kiss her back. Eva smiled when he responded to the kiss.


End file.
